WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel really got under the skin of top Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel when the ethically challenged lawmaker delivered a tirade before Congress, according to a new account.
“What the ?%!# are you and Rangel doing?” Emanuel, then charged with re-electing Democrats to Congress and later President Obama’s chief-of-staff, screamed in a phone call to Lanny Davis.
Davis, who was advising Rangel on how to spin to the press a series of reports on Rangel’s ethics problems, recounted the 2008 conversation in his new book, “Crisis Tales,” replacing the expletives with punctuation marks.
Emanuel told Davis that Rangel’s antics came just as Democrats were getting back on message in their congressional races.
“Why don’t you tell him to shut the ?%!# up?” Emanuel demanded, according to Davis’ how-to book on spin.
The foul-mouthed rant was in contrast to the hands-off public posture congressional leaders and the White House adopted throughout the scandal, generally reserving judgment while the Ethics Committee plowed through volumes on Rangel’s unpaid taxes on a Dominican villa, rent-controlled apartments and trips to the Caribbean.
Two years later, Obama would say he hoped Rangel would “end his career with dignity,” and the House eventually voted to censure the longtime lawmaker.
According to Davis, Rangel had a hard time taking advice, including Davis’ suggestion that Rangel make public information such as the $75,000 he owed in taxes on the villa.
“Why should I help you embarrass me?” he asked Davis.